1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to storage devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to enterprise device policy management.
2. Related Art
Concerns about the security of portable data storage devices such as USB flash drives continue to grow, especially for enterprise security managers. Hundreds of millions of USB flash drives are sold each year. With an average storage capacity exceeding one gigabyte, these USB flash drives represent one of the most difficult to control and potentially costly security risks facing enterprises and other organizations. Uncontrolled usage of portable data storage devices results in real-world repercussions. For example, approximately 75 percent of Fortune 1000 companies fell victim to data leakage in 2006, with an average cost of recovery that exceeded $5,000,000.
Secure USB flash drives represent one secure and easy-to-use solution to the problem of physical device security. However, physical security of USB flash drives is only one issue faced by enterprise security managers. With thousands of USB flash drives being used in a given organization, managing the usage and policies of those devices presents an equally significant challenge. As such, there is a need to ensure that a minimum set of security standards can be established and automatically enforced across an entire group of portable data storage devices. Furthermore, there is a need to allow flexible implementation to conform to policies of a specific user group.